Home DIY

As always, I would follow what @Bobbo says, but if you are going to buy another treatment, I really like the Ronseal Deck Protect. It creates a waxy finish that beads water off really well. I try to put it on the deck once a year and it's still looking great 4 years on. You can give multiple coats, but you need to put subsequent coats on before the first one dries or they will just bead off too.

Start at the other end where the wire/wires are coming from and put a new length in. Extend the plastic pipe, move the socket to the new position.

To do it with less hassle you could put a junction box of some sort. Wiska for example. There are lots of housings for connections to live in though.

I do have some Lush bath 'bombs' that were gifted to my other half and never used...
I was thinking more along the lines of returning the presents the local cats insist on leaving in our garden...

Do you definitely need to move that one from its location? You could extend the spur in matching trucking and install another socket 2m to the left.

See if you can still get those bubble bath balls then chuck a few in their while their relaxing with their eyes closed.

Or lob a Lion bar in when they're not looking.

Agreed, more plugs the better!

This.

Start at the other end where the wire/wires are coming from

Cheers.

The fuse box is in an adjacent brick outhouse. Idk for sure whether it starts there or is feed off the main outhouse room, but the wires come out of the outhouse, under the ground, into the shed and through the conduct.

I like the idea of another socket, but given that there are a total of 4 sockets (2 x2), and idk how it is supplied / feed(?) just moving that one seems safer.

NB. in the last pic: left = double socket , right = double socket , up = light and light switch

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Double sockets are still only rated at 13A not 26A.

You can quite safely add another socket, just check the wiring in the one you want to extend. If there are two sets of wires then extend the ring to a new socket.

If there is only a single set of wires then it's a spur. You can extend a spur but you'll need to add a 13A fused connection unit before the socket you are spurring from.

If you have a drain cover in your back yard. And you notice the soil/stones around it are moved.
Is something digging in, digging out, or is it shit flowing out?

Once you've done that, are you limited to just the one additional socket on the spur??

Rats?

If it's flowing out, you'd probably have backing up in your loos way before.

Pop the lid off and have a look.

A general rule of thumb is 'you can't take a spur from a spur'. There are some circumstances where this this doesn't apply but generally it requires that the cable to the socket is protected by a fuse.

Probably best just to use a junction box to extend the cable to a new socket. It might be wise to check the Zs but that requires a fairly specialised tester.

Not my most useful answer ever! probably worth revisiting in a workday.

If you already have 2 x 2gang sockets it suggests a ring. You can check relatively quickly but its not that easy to explain how.

Ive been here before in my old house.
I'm going to check in with the housing association first....

junction box

The more I read, the more this looks like the easiest and cheapest solution.

I seem to have a million and one other projects stacking up, plus work, plus a toddler. Plus with C19 and WFH I'm loathed to cause any damage which will require calling people out.

Today our boiler sprang a leak for the 2nd time, so also having to organise the emergency callout stuff on that. Definitely glad we paid the extra £30 or whatever it was for that!

speaking of electrics, my whole house (3 bed 1930s semi) has one lighting circuit for the whole place – upstairs, downstairs, extension (but not outside lights) on a B10 MCB. Is that MCB OK for a lighting circuit, which i thought should be 6A?

The MCB value is determined by the cable capacity, 'Cable Is King'. When it's installed the routing and cable type are noted, real world values for capacity checked and a value arrived at which will indicate that the breaker will operate before the cable overheats and catches fire.

It's a big part of electrical installation and a paragraph on a forum wouldn't do it justice but that's the essence of it.

Other considerations would be diversity, how many light bulbs has the circuit been designed for? In your case they may have used a larger cable/mcb capacity and a single circuit as it saves some of the issues with upstairs/downstairs shared neutrals etc.

Have the prices of replacement filters for dust masks just gone mad since Corona? Trying to buy some new P100 filters for my 3m mask, used to be able to get 3 packs for under a fiver, but now 5 packs are £30 - about 4 times the price!

In a word yes.

I've been unable to buy any replacement filter for my respirator since everything kicked off. Even going direct to JSP they are still showing as out of stock.

yeah ppe seems to be pretty much unavailable across the board

and my local DIY shop has low stock of everything - whether that's due to high demand or lack of ability to import stuff from china, idk

What a ballache. I've still got a pair left, but also lots of sanding to do. FFS!

Anything to look out for when purchasing battery powered smoke/fire alarms? Any recommendations?

Which recommends the FireAngel ST-622 - it has a 10 year battery

Otherwise, it says there much of a muchness (although there is a list of Don't Buys)

Mould made for concrete worktop!

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